Bees thrive in the city. They actually can do better in the city than in the country. Cities have so many flowering trees, gardens, and ornamental flowers. They have such a wonderful variety of nectar and pollen to choose from. The Madison area also has a longer growing season than the surrounding farmland. They eat pollen and nectar from basswood, apple and crabapple trees, dandelions, creeping charlie, bergamot, sedum, asters, mint, oregano, roses, and so many others. And this variety of sources really improves the health of the bees and the taste of the honey.

In many ways we are defined by our aspirations. I am a dreamer, and despite having a clear vision of where I would like to be I often find it difficult to make consistent progress.

This is a discussion of dreams; of motivation and achievement. We'll look at some of the cognitive mechanisms behind memory, habit formation and goal setting behavior. We will then use those insights to develop a plan that can help us realize our potential by making simple changes in our daily lives.

By the end of our exploration it is my sincere hope that you will have some concrete and actionable steps to help you achieve your dreams. Whether or not I'm successful in that goal I expect it will be a lovely journey.

Pair-programming is a practice that is often praised, but rarely practiced. So what is it about pairing that makes so difficult to get to? Any developer who wants to grow and learn with others will want to take a deeper look at pairing through a variety of lenses. First, we'll take a step back and look at pairing in other contexts from the cockpit to the kitchen. We'll investigate pairing from both a rational and emotional perspective to see what barriers we can remove. And we'll look at how to make pairing a habit that can re-energize a developer and a team. Attendees will leave with a more holistic understanding of pair-programming and some practical steps to make it a regularly rewarding habit.

Learn how Adorable IO’s web development & design team created the Madison+ Ruby conference website. SaVance Ford & Erica Naughton, both graduates of the YWeb Career Academy, invite you behind the scenes for a look into how the website was designed, planned and coded. This presentation covers their process of working together, wireframing and programming with ReactJS.

The two paired up to redesign and launch the new Madison+ Ruby website in just a few weeks. SaVance and Erica are excited to share the first project they’ve taken ownership in, and hope to empower and educate all newbies in tech.

By definition the title will allow some meandering - other than my constantly changing font styles and sizes. I'll throw in some stories from the 25 years of my band, Pigface, wonder where I am and where I B. Plus, you know, muffins.

After more than 15 years of experience, much of it as a technical lead, I became effectively the head of HR at my small consultancy. I was confident that my technical team leader skills would transfer. I was overconfident. Having a much more direct role in creating and maintaining company culture helped me understand why professional HR is not a luxury for small companies. Even a "great culture" doesn't mean your company does everything right, and you can write down a process, but you can't make people follow it. Did I make mistakes? Yes. Was I lucky enough not to make any really bad ones. I think so. People are too important to leave HR to amateurs. Let's talk about what it means to be in charge of people at a small development shop.

As more Americans rank "place" as a guiding factor in determining where they live/work/play, cities across the nation are in a competitive dash to harness the power of art, technology, and entrepreneurship to give their community a unique edge.

The open source movement has fallen far short of the idealism of its earliest proponents. What began as a utopian vision of programmers creating free software for free distribution in practice reflects the same significant cultural issues prevalent throughout the software industry: problems of unequal access and oppressive power structures enabling a privileged few to act as gatekeepers of access and arbiters of value. This talk explores the fundamental principles upon which open source was based and how each in turn has been subverted by the reality of human nature.